Faculty Loan Repayment Opportunity: Application Cycle Open

Physical therapists from disadvantaged backgrounds can apply for up to $40,000 in student loan assistance through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Faculty Loan Repayment Program (FLRP). Applications now are being accepted for the program, which offers health professions faculty, including physical therapists, the opportunity to pay off qualified student loans. FLRP is designed to increase the recruitment and retention of health professions faculty with the goal of preparing the next generation of health care professionals. In return for loan assistance, accepted applicants will provide 2 years of service at an approved health professions institution.

Deadline for applications is June 27, 2013. For more information or to apply, visit the FLRP website.

APTA continues its public policy priority to include physical therapists in additional student loan repayment initiatives.

Comments

Why are faculty members who reap the benefits of outrageous tuition costs getting anything? If you have a doctorate and are a university professor, your disadvantaged background is now a moot point. You are the 1% everyone likes to complain about these days.
Why not give the students of the winning applicant a $40,000 tuition reduction?

Posted by Sean
on 5/17/2013 6:38 PM

The website we are directed to has nothing about physical therapists, under the loan reimbursement section

Posted by Rob
on 5/17/2013 9:15 PM

Sean, you are very misinformed. You wrongly assume that somehow higher tuition costs are going to "university professors". First, if you compare the rise in costs for education with the rise in costs for consumer goods such as a car, you will find that the cost of cars has risen higer over the last few decades than the cost of education. Second, I have been teaching in a PT school for 25 years, and my income is far, far below the "1%" of the population who have the highest incomes. Perhaps you should check your facts before you respond ignorantly. I support the FLRP to help faculty who are from disadvantaged backgrounds who are at relatively low-paying faculty positions and are trying to re-pay their education loans.

Posted by Tom
on 5/18/2013 2:01 PM

In the link provided there was no mention of a loan repayment program that includes physical therapists.

Posted by Tieya Qualls
on 5/18/2013 3:10 PM

I am on faculty at a top tier PT Department and my salary is equivalent to my clinical PT peers of similar years of experience. Sean, you are misinformed.

Posted by Mike
on 5/21/2013 4:34 PM

1% of the American public posses a doctorate according to the US Census 2000. I guess ignorance is only important when it is not possessed by a professor? BTW you can go buy a used car at a more reasonable rate. Where can someone get a used PT degree? Many PT school teachers put in far less than 40 hours per week. In addition, they reap the benefits of students paying full tuition rates when they are out of school on clinical rotations. These young adults come out with nearly $150,000 in debt and an average starting salary of around $58,000. The greed of the universities and the complete lack of responsibility "Tom" takes is embarrassing. He works somewhere he feels is underpaying him. What most of us would do is find a job with better pay. But not the career academic. Instead, he thinks we taxpayers should give he and his ilk a handout. And that my friends is what is wrong with our universities today.

Posted by Sean
on 5/22/2013 3:34 PM

If you click on the Eligibility link on the website it VERY clearly says under Allied Health: Physical Therapists.

Posted by Kelly
on 5/22/2013 3:35 PM

The link is working properly. It directs you to the overview page of what the program is. If you click on the "Eligibility Requirements, Funding Preferences, and Application Process" link listed in the description, it clearly has physical therapists listed under Allied Health Professions.

Posted by Jennifer
on 5/22/2013 3:36 PM

Does anyone know of any programs like this for Physical Therapist that are NOT faculty or those going back for their DPT?